


you light up this city

by strikedawn



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Start the new year with a new set of cavities by yours truly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22074694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strikedawn/pseuds/strikedawn
Summary: Sougo sighed again as Tamaki blocked the phone, turning off the screen. All of IDOLiSH7 had been planning their end of the year party for weeks, impossible to say who was more excited about it.Though, considering the kind of face Tamaki was making, it would have been easy to say it was him the one the saddest to miss it.“I’m sorry, Tamaki-kun,” Sougo said softly, using Tamaki’s new proximity to do what he couldn’t before and rest his hand on Tamaki’s arm. “I know you were looking forward to—““—Let’s go, Sou-chan!”“—the party… Huh!?”
Relationships: Ousaka Sougo/Yotsuba Tamaki
Comments: 11
Kudos: 76





	you light up this city

**Author's Note:**

> Do you ever decide to go on a writing hiatus--and then an idea slaps you in the face two seconds later? That's how this fic was born.
> 
> Happy new (mezzo) year!!

The clock was ticking, Tamaki was getting impatient, and the road was just as blocked as it had been twenty minutes ago.

They weren’t going to make it.

“Come ooooooon,” Tamaki bemoaned, leaning over the center console of the car to peer through the windshield. “We haven’t moved an inch!”

Reflected on the review mirror, the driver sent them both an apprehensive look. “I’m really sorry,” she said, bowing as much as the reduced space inside the car allowed her to. “It looks like there was some kind of accident. The road will be blocked until it’s cleared up, and it’s too late to go back now.”

“It’s alright,” Sougo replied with a placating smile. Then, before Tamaki could say anything else, he added: “We just hope everyone is alright…”

“I hope so too,” the driver said with a regretful sigh. “It would too sad if something had happened on a date like today.”

Sougo nodded, too tired to add anything else. Next to him, Tamaki was typing furiously on his phone, a pout forming on his bottom lip with each word he wrote and each word he received. Sougo wanted to reach across the middle seat that separated them, brush his fingers against Tamaki’s wrist, but his body felt heavy and sluggish after a long day of work, an uncomfortable sensation brewing low in his stomach and to the left of his abdomen. Even that small gesture —leaning to the side to grab Tamaki’s attention— seemed like too much of a feat.

Luckily for him, there was no need to move. Tamaki looked up then, meeting Sougo’s eyes for a second, before unbuckling his seat-belt and sliding over the seat until his whole side was pressed against Sougo’s. Sougo thought about chastising, for a second, but they were stopped dead in the middle of the road. There was no danger in Tamaki taking his seat-belt off.

Tamaki was too big for the middle seat, his limbs too long for the narrow space, but he made it work long enough to tilt his phone towards Sougo and show him his latest text messages. It was a conversation with Riku, more King Pudding stickers than actual words, and it said the following:

 ** _Riku_** _(11:15pm): Tamaki! Where are you? Mitsuki is doing what he can to save you a piece of his Pudding cake but Yamato-san is out for the hunt!_

 ** _Tamaki_** _(11:37pm): we just finished our shooting but we’re stuck in traffic!!!!!! DON’T LET YAMA-SAN GET MY CAKE, RIKKUN!!_

 ** _Riku_** _(11:38pm): I’ll do what I can, but you and Sougo-san better hurry up! None of us want to start the new year without you!_

 ** _Tamaki_** _(11:38pm): got it!!_

Sougo sighed again as Tamaki blocked the phone, turning off the screen. All of IDOLiSH7 had been planning their end of the year party for weeks, impossible to say who was more excited about it.

Though, considering the kind of face Tamaki was making, it would have been easy to say it was him the one the saddest to miss it.

“I’m sorry, Tamaki-kun,” Sougo said softly, using Tamaki’s new proximity to do what he couldn’t before and rest his hand on Tamaki’s arm. “I know you were looking forward to—“

“—Let’s go, Sou-chan!”

“—the party… Huh!?”

Before Sougo could do anything against it, Tamaki slid all the way back to the other side of the seat and out of the car, boots hitting the asphalt of the highway in between frozen cars. “Tamaki-kun!!” Sougo shouted, feeling his heart climb all the way up to his throat because _Tamaki had just jumped out of the car—_

“Hey!” That was the driver, twisting around in her seat to look at the now open back door with big eyes—eyes that quickly narrowed in Sougo’s direction. “Your manager said—“

“Hurry up, Sou-chan!” Tamaki shouted from somewhere outside the car, his voice small through the distance and below the rumbling of the other vehicles around them. _Where was he!?_ “Hurry!!”

“…Here,” Sougo reached inside his bag for the money he always kept in the secret pocket and pushed it into the driver’s open hand. He knew it was too much, but he didn’t wait around for the change. “Happy new year.”

“I…” the driver started to say, blinking owlishly down at the money. “But your manager said—“

Sougo didn’t get to hear what Banri had told the woman. He pushed the car’s door behind him on his way out, more out of habit than rudeness, the driver’s voice swallowed down by the soft thud as it closed. Around him, the road was a frozen world of purring cars and melted snow. Fat but soft snowflakes were falling down in a whirlwind around them, brushing against Sougo’s cheeks hard enough to hurt. The cold crept upon him, on his naked hands and uncovered neck.

Just as Sougo thought about pulling his scarf and hat out of the bag, Tamaki called out to him again from further down the road, waving his arms over his head.

“Over here!”

Sougo had no other choice. With one last sigh, Sougo started running, zigzagging among the cars to jump onto the sidewalk, his thick boots sliding on the frozen pavement every time Sougo took his eyes off it. The cold air scratched the insides of his throat like claws as he breathed it in, as he did what he wasn’t used to and ran after Tamaki. Tamaki, who waited two seconds for Sougo to reach him before breaking into a run again, his laughter carrying in the winter air as he jumped ahead.

Always ahead.

“We can make it, Sou-chan!” Tamaki exclaimed, throwing a grin at Sougo over his shoulder as he dodged the review mirror of a shiny Volvo.

“You—you can’t just jump out of a car, Tamaki-kun!”

“We weren’t moving!”

“ _Still_ —!”

The first sign of pain was like a flash, like being punctured with a long needle all across his abdomen, from right to left. It happened with an intake of breath, then deepened with the next, and Sougo forced himself to skip on the third to avoid the pain.

“Come on, slowpoke!” Tamaki screamed up ahead—even farther up ahead? He sounded far away at least. “We can make it!”

Sougo shook his head, running still even when he felt his stomach twist over itself. “Please, at least run on the sidewalk! Get off the road!”

Somewhere, a long cheer let Sougo know it was fifteen minutes to midnight. Admittedly, they weren’t that far away from home. Sougo recognized the long road they were in through his hazy vision; on a good day, it would only take them twenty minutes of slow walking to get there. With the snowed sidewalks deserted so late at night and the way they were running, they might even make it in time to greet the new year with the others, like they had planned.

They could—

The next stab of pain felt just like that: like being sliced open with a hot knife, digging into his stomach with fury, to the point Sougo’s knees faltered on the next step and he ended up curled over the snow, knees almost touching the ground below. His bag slid off his shoulder as Sougo wrapped his arms around his middle, trying and failing to control his breathing. He knew his pain by now: where it came from, why it came, why he couldn’t do anything against it. So he knew there was no other option but to push through.

Not if he wanted to make sure they were back home before midnight.

In a second. He would start running again in a second, when his vision stopped swimming and he could breathe again without his stomach wanting to kill him—

“—Sou-chan!?”

Tamaki’s voice sounded closer than before. Crouched over the snow, Sougo looked up to see Tamaki still running, his long legs carrying him over the sidewalk swiftly—but in a different direction now. He wasn’t running towards home but back towards Sougo, an expression of so much fear morphing his features that it registered through Sougo’s watering eyes.

What could scary Tamaki so much? Sougo would fight against it if he had to, he would protect Tamaki—

“Sou-chan. Sou-chan I’m so sorry, I forgot, I’m an idiot, I’m so sorry!”

 _Oh_ , Sougo thought as Tamaki skidded into a halt in front of him and his arms came around Sougo gently, helping him move upwards. “It’s—It’s okay, Tamaki-kun…”

“It’s not okay! I forgot running isn’t good for you. I’m very sorry, Sou-chan, are you okay?”

Standing upright now, Sougo felt something warm unfurl in his chest as he looked up at Tamaki. His hair, pulled back into a ponytail for the shoot, was now falling around his cheeks in his usual hairstyle, hair tie no doubt lost somewhere in the street. The cold and the short race had brought a dusting of red to his cheeks, but Tamaki’s most alluring feature were his eyes—blue pools that reflected Sougo’s own face back at him, pools that held so much worry for Sougo that his throat closed off.

Pain that had nothing to do with his stomach crossed Sougo’s chest as Tamaki’s hands slid down from his arms to his bare hands, gripping them in his.

“…I’m alright, Tamaki-kun,” Sougo said, finding it in him to smile up at Tamaki. “Come on, I think we can still—“

“ _Don’t,_ ” Tamaki interrupted him abruptly, and Sougo choked on his own words, even if Tamaki’s hands were still so very gentle on him. “We’re not… we don’t do that anymore. So don’t hide how you’re feeling, okay?”

Tamaki was right, of course. Sougo had been learning to be truthful to himself and others, little by little, and while it was difficult sometimes, there was someone who never let him slip back into his own vices. And that person, without a doubt, was Tamaki. One look from his partner and Sougo was dropping the act of being strong, shoulders curling inwards and smile slipping until only a faint grimace remained on his face.

“Sorry,” Sougo whispered, leaning his weight on Tamaki’s hands. “I…don’t think I can run. It hurts.”

Tamaki nodded, face grim, even if some of the cloudiness left the blue of his eyes at Sougo’s words. “That’s alright. Let’s go back to the car, okay…?”

They both looked up, to the sea of completely still vehicles around them, trying to find their car through the snow.

It wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

“Um…” Tamaki muttered, looking from one side of the road to the other with his hands still holding Sougo’s. “I can’t see it.”

“…Maybe we left it behind,” Sougo replied, also looking for the car. What color had it been, anyway? He had been too tired to notice in the darkness after their shoot, and it wasn’t like Banri always sent them the same car and driver when he couldn’t come to pick MEZZO” up personally. “We have been running for a bit.”

As Sougo turned his head to look at Tamaki once again Tamaki looked down, lips pursed. “I’m sorry, Sou-chan.”

The warm feeling spread even further through Sougo’s chest, soothing the pain in his abdomen somewhat. “This isn’t your fault, Tamaki-kun. And I’m not mad.”

“But you’re in pain!”

“I can handle it. It does hurt but I’m okay, I promise,” Sougo added when Tamaki narrowed his eyes at him once again. “I can do it if we go back walking. Although we probably won’t make it in time for midnight…”

Sougo let go of one of Tamaki’s hands to look at the inner fold of his wrist, where the sphere of his watch rested. Its hands were unforgiving—only six minutes to midnight, it said.

Next to him, Tamaki was using his own free hand to unearth his phone, his scowl deepening when he read whatever was waiting for him on the lock screen. With a swiftness Sougo couldn’t help but be envious of, Tamaki quickly composed a text with a single thumb, sent it, then pocketed the phone was again.

“…Everything okay?” Sougo asked when Tamaki’s silence stretched.

“Just letting Rikkun know we won’t make it,” Tamaki replied with a shrug. “Yama-san ate my cake.”

“I’m sorry, Tamaki-kun.”

But Tamaki shook his head, squeezing the hand of Sougo’s he was still holding. “How’s the pain?”

Sougo thought about it, if only because he knew Tamaki would get mad if Sougo just gave a thoughtless answer. “We can start walking now, if you want. It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.”

The answer seemed to satisfy Tamaki, who nodded. But instead of resuming their trip back home like Sougo expected Tamaki stayed in his spot, looking down at Sougo from beneath his bangs as his breath left his mouth in the form of white smoke.

Then, before Sougo could ask what was wrong, Tamaki lifted a hand and pinched the tip of Sougo’s nose with his fingers.

“T-Tamaki-kun?”

“You’re all red, Sou-chan,” Tamaki said, a smile pulling the corners of his lips upwards. “Are you cold?”

“Ah, um. But it is rather cold, isn’t it? Look, it’s still snowing.”

“It’s a good thing we didn’t take off our coats when we got in the car… oh, here Sou-chan.”

Tamaki leaned down then, picking up something crumpled and wet from the ground and presenting it to Sougo with both hands. The lights from the streetlamp almost weren’t enough for Sougo to recognize his own bag, the fabric all damp and dirty from the dirty slush covering the sidewalk. None of the contents had fallen out, but the bag was in dire need of a wash now.

Sougo certainly wasn’t looking forward to carrying it over his white coat.

“Ah, lucky!” Tamaki suddenly exclaimed, pulling out Sougo’s scarf and hat from the bag. “These are dry!”

Putting the bag between his knees, Tamaki stepped closer to Sougo and started to bundle him up in the soft fabric of his scarf, wrapping it over and over again over Sougo’s mouth and chin. The fabric was familiar and warm, but for a moment, as Tamaki’s quick hands buzzed past his nose, Sougo worried about choking on all that fabric.

That is, until Tamaki artfully tucked in the ends of the scarf, and Sougo realized he was warm and protected from the cold and in no danger of suffocating.

“Ta-daa! All set! Now the hat…”

“…You’re good at this,” Sougo said as Tamaki pushed the hat onto Sougo’s head, making sure Sougo’s ears were beneath the fabric and his hair didn’t bother him.

“Course I am! The kids at the orphanage always asked me to bundle them up before they had to go out. I’m an expert!”

There it went again, the warm feeling, this time accompanied by a tingly sensation that had Sougo hiding a soft smile in his scarf. Tamaki was such a good person, Sougo marveled, though not for the first time. “Thank you, Tamaki-kun.”

“Sure thing!”

After that, there was nothing to do except start walking home. In the distance, Sougo could see lights from rows of cars for as far as the street allowed him to, but they quickly turned a corner into a much quieter street, far away from the sounds of the traffic jam. Here, even the snow seemed to fall more gently, fluttering around them like silent butterflies that came to rest on their shoulders, on the tops of their heads. Tamaki reached out to catch some in his palms —neither of them was wearing gloves, Sougo realized, and Tamaki’s knuckles were slightly red from the cold—and he laughed when he managed to keep one snowflake in his palm for a whole second, before it melted away.

From the corner of his eye, Sougo watched Tamaki wipe away the dampness from the snow in his coat. It wasn’t like the coat was completely dry either; Tamaki had refused to return Sougo’s wet bag, so it now hung from Tamaki’s shoulder, bumping against the part of Tamaki’s long-ish coat that covered his hip.

“You could run back to the house if you wanted, Tamaki-kun,” Sougo said at one point, right as they started crossing a solitary but well-illuminated bridge. The water underneath was dark except for the reflections of the lights. “You could still catch the others awake.”

Tamaki sent Sougo such a glare that Sougo would have recoiled, if this had been a year ago. Now, Sougo simply lifted both his eyebrows, blinking up at Tamaki innocently. “I’m not going to abandon you, Sou-chan!” He said. Then, hiding his mouth in the high neck of his coat, he mumbled something Sougo didn’t get to hear.

“What?” Sougo prodded, to which Tamaki groaned.

“I said—! I said… it’s not the same if you’re not there too,” he admitted, keeping his eyes cast away from Sougo. “So there really isn’t a point in going ahead.”

Sougo’s heart skipped a beat at the admission, making him smile into the folds of his scarf. “Thank you, Tamaki-kun.”

A deep blush rose from the neck of Tamaki’s coat up to his cheeks, spreading to his ears. He still wasn’t looking at Sougo. “Um.”

Sougo’s smile became softer, his heart beating faster—surely simply for the brisk pace they held as they walked. “I am sorry about you missing the cake, though… If you don’t mind me, maybe I could prepare—“

The fireworks went off somewhere in the distance, but their boom was still loud enough to render both Sougo and Tamaki speechless. They turned towards the source, a point beyond the trees and past the riverbank. Tamaki stepped closer to Sougo’s side as the sound rumbled in their chests—and just then a second firework went off, its blue lights illuminating the night sky brighter than a galaxy of stars.

“Pretty…” Tamaki mumbled, even if he was still half cowering behind Sougo’s smaller form. Just then, another set of lights went up in the sky, their sound fainter but their colors bright as ever.

Midnight, Sougo realized.

“Yeah.”

Tamaki’s hand wrapped around Sougo’s upper arm, fingers digging into the soft plush of his coat as they both looked up at the lights in the sky.

The lights of a new decade.

“…Happy new year, Sou-chan,” Tamaki whispered.

And Sougo felt that sensation once more, a feeling so deep but so gentle, so _warm_ towards Tamaki, that the impulse to lean against him and feel him close was almost too intense to bear. Almost too intense to ignore. “Happy new year, Tamaki-kun,” Sougo replied. And, because he didn’t dare to do anything else, he turned towards Tamaki, and added: “I’m happy I got to spend 2019 with you as my partner. I hope you’ll let me do the same this year, too.”

Tamaki inhaled sharply, his hand tightening around Sougo’s arm. Sougo didn’t mind; Tamaki was solid against his side, there where he was still pressed close from when the fireworks had startled him. And this close, Sougo could see the lights of the fireworks casting colors onto his skin, onto the blue of his eyes. Red, green, yellow, orange, dark blue.

Soft violet.

Tamaki looked beautiful as he looked down at Sougo and Sougo too, found it hard to breathe that cold winter air. “Happy new year, Sou-chan,” Tamaki said, so softly that Sougo wouldn’t have heard him if they weren’t alone on the bridge. Tamaki leaned forward, hesitantly; a movement so out of character for him that Sougo could already feel his own worry brewing at the bottom of his chest.

“Tama—ki…”

The kiss was barely a touch of lips, meant to be placed on Sougo’s cheek, but nerves and the flash of a new firework making it wander to the very corner of Sougo’s opened mouth. And it lingered—Tamaki stayed close with his lips against Sougo’s skin for a moment too long, then another, just to quickly move back on the next beat of a stuttering heart, leaving Sougo breathless in the middle of that deserted bridge, under the lights of the new year.

As if in a dream, Sougo lifted his gloveless hand to brush his fingertips against where Tamaki’s kiss now laid. His skin there felt hot to the touch, and tingly.

Then again, Sougo was feeling like that all over his body.

“Me too,” Tamaki muttered, sharply looking away the moment Sougo looked back, and it took a second for Sougo to realize Tamaki was replying to Sougo’s earlier words. “…Be together with me next year too, Sou-chan.”

Sougo felt his chest so full, it was like the fireworks in the distance were exploding right inside his chest, bursting his ribcage open from the inside. And he wanted Tamaki to know; he wanted to tell him how much that meant to him, that someone as incredible, as talented as Tamaki wanted him as his partner. For another day, for another month, for another year.

It made Sougo feel like he was worth it.

After all they had been through, after all the trials and errors, they both wanted the same thing.

“…of course,” Sougo said in the end, because he lacked the vocabulary to explain to Tamaki everything he felt. So he contented himself with grabbing Tamaki’s hand in his, looking up at him with a smile so big, his cheeks started to hurt. “Of course, Tamaki-kun.”

And when Tamaki smiled brightly and squeezed his hand back, Sougo thought that maybe he hadn’t had that bad of a job at making himself be understood.

“Yay! Now let’s get home, Sou-chan!”

“Um,” Sougo nodded. Together, they started walking down the bridge, hands still firmly holding each other. In the distance, the fireworks show had already ended, though neither of them noticed. “It’s getting colder, isn’t it?”

“I think so… Ah, Sou-chan, how’s the pain? Can you walk? I can totally give you a ride if you can’t!”

Sougo laughed lowly, but still loud enough to reach Tamaki, who smiled happily at the sound. “It’s okay, Tamaki-kun,” Sougo said, and held on to Tamaki’s hand tighter. It was fine, though; Tamaki was holding back just as tightly. “I feel great now.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading! Come scream about mezzo and i7 with me on twitter @strikemika


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